In 2022, Portuguese label, Imaginaria, announced a planned trilogy of LPs intended to take the listener on a journey. Put together by Italian music lovers Giovanni Santucci and Luca EffeSunset, like a sublime mixtape, the first instalment, The Trip, opened with a reading of Portuguese poet Fernando Antonio Nogueira Pessoa’s celebrated work, Nuvens. From there it took in tracks from their homeland, Ibiza, Mexico and Brazil. The second volume, The Place, travelled further to The U.S. of A. and Japan. The final chapter, Home, now, appropriately focuses heavily on Italy, stopping off in Turkey along the way. 

The mood is mainly Mediterranean, a mix of Spanish guitar and Middle Eastern / North African melodies. Zeb’s Sleepless in Palestine, for instance, features traditional strings, and some sort zither, perhaps an oud, drives its funk. Its programmed beats and ethnic instrumentation might put you in mind of the Cosmic Club cuts on Munich’s Global Rhythm Records. It should be noted that the zither player has some serious skills. This is not a loop. 

Veteran percussionist Tony Cercola’s Rumori del Vesuvio is a rapid hand drum ritual, complete with gongs and chants. Giandomenico Galatro’s Last Quiet and Tom E Morrison’s Bolivian Reverie are both ECM-esque blends of folk and jazz. The former is Brazilian leaning, with beautiful key caresses in the spaces between echoed picked guitar notes. The latter is characterised by an ancient woodwind. 

Aco Bocina’s Oltremare is one of two tracks that rock – gentle – reggae riddims. The other is Hepyek Selekta’s Ankara Skank. Melodica-led, with a “Lovers” lilt, jaunty and joyful, a Hawaiian guitar coda lends it a very holiday vibe. The journey then ends back where it began, three years before, with another extract from Nuvens, serenaded by a nocturnal cicada chorus.  

El Mundo Es Sonido, The World Is Sound – Third: “Home” can be ordered directly from  Imaginaria.